Thanks to tips from the public, two brothers are behind bars for allegedly following a flea market shop owner to his home and robbing him at gunpoint.
Raymond Lamar Meadows, 40, and Ralph Eugene Meadows, 41, were arrested Monday after a search warrant was executed at their Athens home, Cpl. Jake Smith with Gwinnett County police said Thursday. Each brother has been charged with armed robbery, and Ralph Meadows was also charged with aggravated assault, Smith said.
After speaking several times to the owner of Pendergrass Flea Market shop, two suspects allegedly followed the man to his home in unincorporated Suwanee on Nov. 16, according to police.
“The victim saw a male standing outside of his vehicle armed with a shotgun,” police said at the time. “He immediately recognized the suspect as one of the two men acting suspiciously in his store earlier in the day.”
The suspect demanded money, which the victim provided. But the suspect wanted more money and fired a shot into the floorboard of the victim’s vehicle before leaving in a waiting black Kia Forte, according to police.
The victim was able to provide investigators with surveillance pictures of two men who had been inside his store, and Gwinnett police released those pictures to the media. Those pictures led to numerous tips for detectives, who also used a partial tag number to match the Kia to a vehicle rented by Ralph Meadows, Smith said.
After identifying the Meadows brothers as suspects, Gwinnett police and the Athens-Clarke County SWAT team searched their home before taking both into custody without incident. Both were being held Thursday night without bond in the Gwinnett County jail.
The brothers are previously convicted felons, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Raymond Meadows served nearly 12 years after being convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Elbert County, records show. He was released from prison in November 2004.
Ralph Meadows was released from prison in January 2000 after serving a year for a conviction on burglary and terroristic threats and acts in Elbert County, records show. That was his third time in Georgia prisons, according to the Department of Corrections.
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